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Rangers’ Molina Has 2 Shots at a Ring

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Among baseball players, only Bengie Molina could get this lucky.

Traded from San Francisco to Texas on July 1, Molina finds himself in the unusual position of being eligible for a World Series ring with two potential participants. If the Giants, who lead the National League Championship Series, three games to two, finish off the Phillies, and join Texas in the World Series, Molina will earn his second championship ring no matter who wins. He won his first in 2002 with the Angels.

Molina declined an interview request before Game 6 on Friday. But Thursday, before Texas worked out at Rangers Ballpark, he told reporters he could not help thinking about it.

“I just want to make sure we get it done first before anything else,” Molina said, meaning the Rangers. “For sure it would assure me a World Series ring, and that would be a happy note if I was to retire.”

All three of the famed Molina catching brothers have won World Series championships — Yadier in 2006 with St. Louis, and Jose in 2002 with the Angels (backing up Bengie) and last year with the Yankees.

As it is, Bengie Molina has links all over this postseason. In his career, he has caught three of the best pitchers of the remaining teams — Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay in Toronto in 2006, Tim Lincecum the last three and a half seasons in San Francisco, and now Cliff Lee in Texas. When Molina was traded, Lincecum, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, told MLB.com that Molina deserved half the awards Lincecum had won in his career.

Molina was behind the plate for all three of Lee’s dominant starts this postseason, most recently his eight scoreless, two-hit innings at Yankee Stadium in Game 3. And he coaxed Colby Lewis, who was a pedestrian 12-13 this season, through eight innings of three-hit ball in the decisive Game 6 victory over the Yankees.

Photo

Bengie Molina, left, with Mitch Moreland, joined the Rangers in July. Before Friday, he was batting .385 in the playoffs.Credit
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

But in this series, Molina — who hurt the Yankees with three home runs in the 2005 division series for the Angels — was equally valuable with his bat.

After the Rangers’ bullpen imploded to lose Game 1, Molina doubled in an early run the next night to help the Rangers bounce back with a 7-2 victory. He added a run-scoring single in the six-run ninth inning of Game 3 and hit the three-run homer that turned around Game 4. He hit .313 in the A.L.C.S.

“Most people that I know that played with him say that he’s the best clutch hitter they’ve ever seen,” the veteran Texas reliever Darren Oliver said. “He’s kind of proving it in the postseason.”

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Molina has become a fan favorite in Texas. Before Game 6, a fan affixed a homemade sign with a bullseye to the back wall of the second deck in left field that read, “Hit It Here #11,” a reference to Molina’s number. During batting practice, another fan held up a cutout picture of Molina on a stick. Molina, standing by the batting cage, pointed at it and laughed.

Texas Manager Ron Washington says he likes how Molina has fit in.

“When Bengie arrived, he was quiet because he was trying to feel the way we play baseball over here, and the type of things that we do,” Washington said. “But once we won the West, he became vocal. He began to express his experience. He began to show us things that we should look for, things that will happen.

“Since we’ve been in the playoffs, he’s been more vocal. When he says something, you listen, because he’s right on it.”

Earlier in the series, Molina said he needed to learn the pitching staff before offering advice. “When I got here, I didn’t know any of these kids,” he said. “I didn’t know how they throw. I had to learn the hard way. I had to learn start by start.”

To his delight, the things he expected to teach — control, preparation and spotting the fastball — were things the staff already knew. “I don’t think I had to do too much other than help them out calling a game or knowing a situation that they have never been in, or I’ve been to,” he said. “Those are the things that probably help them out more than anything.”

And those are the things that have him in line for another championship.

A version of this article appears in print on October 23, 2010, on Page D3 of the New York edition with the headline: Rangers’ Molina Has 2 Shots At a Ring. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe